Primal Bonds

Oh really? “Then why did you take off the minute I walked into the house?” That still bothered her. “I didn’t even know you lived here. Glory sprang that on me when I was walking up the porch steps. ‘Oh, by the way, I’ve shacked up with the most powerful Feline in South Texas.’ ”

Dylan didn’t smile. “Liam is the most powerful Feline in South Texas. Sean and I are neck and neck for second, though Sean will pull ahead soon. He’s younger, and I’m tired of the game.”

Andrea traced the rim of her coffee cup and made herself look into his intense blue eyes. “You didn’t answer the question. Why did you leave the moment I arrived?”

“Clan business.” Dylan raised his cup, took a sip. “Nothing to do with you.”

“And it’s coincidence that this business happened the same night I got here?”

His smile was so quick she would have missed it if she hadn’t been looking hard at him. “Yes.”

“I’ll have to take your word for it.”

“You will, yes.”

Glory clicked down the stairs and into the kitchen at that moment, tall and slim and dressed from head to toe in hot pink. “Oh, good, you’re chatting. Sean went home?”

“Apparently,” Andrea said.

Glory smiled. “But you didn’t have any more nightmares, did you?”

“No.” Something tight loosened inside Andrea. “No, I didn’t.”

“Good. Dylan’s going to make breakfast, then we’re having a pride meeting at Liam’s bar. About the shootings.”

Andrea looked at her in surprise. “Do you want me there? I’m not part of the pride.” Neither was Glory.

Dylan rose and headed for the stove. “You’re a witness. You and Glory and Ronan. So, yes, Liam and I want you there.”

He proceeded to clatter frying pans and cook up an amazing concoction of sausage, eggs, and potatoes. Discussion over.

An hour or so later, Andrea found herself seated next to Kim Morrissey in the closed bar. Liam lounged on a chair next to Kim, his long legs up, feet propped on the table. Like Sean, Liam wore motorcycle boots, although Sean’s were hooked around the legs of his chair as he sat backward, arms on the slats.

Remembering how good Sean had felt curled up behind her made Andrea flush. She didn’t know why—they hadn’t done anything sexual. Kim caught sight of her flush and smiled knowingly, which made Andrea blush even harder.

Ronan was there too, the big Ursine giving Andrea a wave. Ellison came in behind him. Ellison, as usual, had dressed in cowboy boots, a black shirt, a big silver belt buckle, and a black hat, which he hung up near the bar, smoothing out his honey-colored hair.

Annie, the other waitress, was there, with a tall human man that Annie had her arm around. Annie had mentioned her human boyfriend in passing, a friend of Kim’s, she’d said, but Andrea hadn’t met him yet. The thin man didn’t look frightened to be in a roomful of Shifters, but Annie’s stance was protective. Hurt him and you’re toast, her body language said.

“The owner of the bar wanted to close it because of the shooting,” Liam began without preliminary. “I convinced him to keep it open and not give in to terror tactics. Besides, how would poor Shifter bar managers and the waitresses make any money?”

Liam flashed his charming Irish smile, and the Shifters smiled with him. Silas, Annie’s human, looked a little confused, but Andrea understood Liam’s joke. If humans were too short-sighted to catch on to how Shifters could survive on part-time pittance, then they deserved to be duped.

“But this is a serious situation,” Liam went on. “Sean’s been talking to the police. Sean?”

“I had another chat with the detective yesterday morning,” Sean said. “She didn’t have much more to tell me.”

“She?” Andrea asked.

Sean didn’t seem to notice Andrea’s sudden possessive growl. “The woman didn’t look happy to have our problem dumped on her, but I managed to talk her around.”

I’ll bet. Andrea imagined him smiling his quiet smile, and the female detective being unable to resist his charming blue eyes. She wondered if the detective had realized that Sean had gone commando that morning, and she wanted to growl again.

“She said she’d continue to look into it,” Sean said. “But she suspects it’s gang kids who have decided to make Shifters their target. Sort of counting coup, she said. She looked up the license number of the car, and as you suspected, Liam, it was stolen. In her opinion, it’s kids up to no good. The shooting in San Antonio yesterday didn’t change her mind, at least it hadn’t when I spoke to her again this morning. Random, she said. No one seems very interested in our little problem.”

Sean delivered the story in a calm voice, but Andrea sensed his simmering anger.

Liam listened without changing his expression. “Ronan, what’s your assessment?”

Ronan shrugged his big shoulders. “At first glance, a lowrider full of gang kids, like the cop said.”

“And at second glance?”

“It was too organized, and they weren’t kids. In human terms, adults. The attack was exactly timed when there weren’t a lot of people outside the bar and when I went off to use the gents’. I kinda do that every night at about the same time. Usually there isn’t anyone but Shifters in here then, although we got some humans out barhopping that night.”